Law & Disorder —

Pirate Bay trial starts Monday; pirate bus en route

The Pirate Bay goes on trial in Sweden this upcoming Monday, and the site's …

The Harvard Law students defending accused file-swapper Joel Tenenbaum are doing their best to turn his upcoming trial into a media event, but when it comes to pure spectacle, they have nothing on The Pirate Bay. The Swedish trial against the notorious BitTorrent tracker opens next Monday, and it will come complete with live streamed audio from the courtroom, a Twitter feed, a translation service, and a city bus currently being driven from Belgrade to Stockholm.

The folks on trial are referring to the event as a "spectrial," a combination of "spectacle" and "trial," and there's little doubt it will be. The Pirate Bay backers are on trial for secondary copyright infringement in a case that has been building for several years. The trial begins on February 16 and is slated to go through March 4, with everyone from The Pirate Bay's young backers to the head of the IFPI taking the stand to give evidence. In the middle of it all, on February 20, a "HUGE PARTY" is scheduled.

Public broadcaster SVT will stream audio of the trial, though video recordings from the courtroom are not allowed. The case will (obviously) be held in Swedish, with translation services offered to English-speaking witnesses, but The Pirate Bay wants to make the trial even more accessible to a wider audience. "Of course, this is not enough for us," they write on their new trial-tracking website. "By the help of some friends, we will set up a translated and commentated stream. We will also discuss the trial with famous and/or interesting guests." No word yet on how this will work or how to access it.

The Pirate Bay also hopes to set up a media center outside the courtroom, though with a twist—the center will be a city bus. The bus, called S23K, is currently wending its way through Poland (you can track its progress online), facing various and sundry crises such as gas stations that don't accept euros. In Gdansk, the bus will take a ferry up to northern Sweden, and it is scheduled to arrive in Stockholm before the trial begins. Once there, it will be parked somewhere near the courthouse and "it will be used to intensify the spectacle, among other things functioning as a press center for The Pirate Bay and Piratbyr�n and as a physical gathering place for sympathisers and curious people."

Somewhat oddly, the HUGE PARTY and the bus trip have both been underwritten by donations. Paying to purchase content is right out, of course, but there's a good list of people willing to pony up for both beer and a Belgrade city bus.

Of course, there's also a big press conference scheduled for Sunday, though The Pirate Bay won't speak to just anybody. Models of upright social behavior themselves, the site's backers can't waste their time with "people who really just can’t behave." They also "do not speak with assholes," and reserve the right to deny press conference access to anyone "just having [a] bad attitude." Clear enough?

With the help of Web streaming, bloggers, Twitter feeds (#spectrial), IRC channels, websites, and one piratical bus, The Pirate Bay is set to fight The Man, but the Swedish establishment and the music business have been preparing for this day for year. Will they at last be able to sink The Pirate Bay?

The founders thumb their noses at the majesty of the law, of course; even if found guilty, they have no plans to shut down The Pirate Bay's global network of servers.

Late update: IFPI, music's global trade group, has issued a statement of its own on the upcoming trial. John Kennedy, the group's chairman (and someone scheduled to testify in Stockholm in a couple weeks), said, "The evidence in this case will show that The Pirate Bay is a commercial business which made substantial amounts of money for its operators, despite their claim to be only interested in spreading culture for free."

"A healthy and fairly-rewarded music sector needs protecting from services such as The Pirate Bay. The criminal prosecution comes at a time of rapid, positive change in the business models of creative industries in Sweden and elsewhere. Swedish music consumers have a wide range of choices among legitimate digital music services. These offer great consumer choice while at the same time rewarding and respecting the rights of creators.”

40 Reader Comments

Jokes and spectacles, I find it all in extremely bad taste. They should begin the proceedings with a moment of silence to the thousands of musicians who died of starvation in the 80's after the recordable audio cassette came out. Just to remind everyone how serious this issue really is.

The only people who I pity for being pirated are software developers. Screw the musicians and the actors. Hollywood sux. The one and only good movie last year was the Dark Knight. And music?! Hah! I haven't bought an album since 1998 (which, conincidentally, was when I found Napster). Still! Music has really sucked a lot post 2000.

I find it kind of odd that they are picking on TPB when no one bats an eye at Google. The last several torrents I looked up were from Google. The normal torrent engine site I use is now ad infested. I don't usually go to TPB, maybe I will have to start.

Originally posted by theseum:Just out of curiosity, how can they run ads and claim to be non-commercial?

Because the ad income is used just to sustain the operation and not to provide extra money.

quote:

Originally posted by TechGeek:I find it kind of odd that they are picking on TPB when no one bats an eye at Google. The last several torrents I looked up were from Google. The normal torrent engine site I use is now ad infested. I don't usually go to TPB, maybe I will have to start.

TPB looks like an easier target since it's specifically made to share torrents that point to other data like movies and music(not all of them infringing on copyrights I might add) and less to "raw" information like google does.

I say this from the bottom of my heart: Fuck the IFPI, RIAA and MPAA as well all other such cultural parasites! When the copyright laws are returned to their prior reasonable durations and ownership cant be extorted from the real creators of such works and they are sure to get properly rewarded and fair use is respected, then and only then, will I support copyright policy. Until then fuck the media companies and their lobby groups.

That may be true, but there's definately an area where it's good enough to steal, but too expensive to pay for..expecially with a lot of mediocre stuff that is way over priced because you don't have real capitalist style competition when it comes to copywrited content, you only get one source, and only how they want to sell it to you. Content creators need to start making their goods available via more than one publisher if they really want to spread their content. It works for the AP and various other news media sources.

Paying to purchase content is right out, of course, but there's a good list of people willing to pony up for beer...

Oh, the snarks are attacking!

I really like this quote! because it shows just how fucking idiotic Big Media exacs trully are! they say piracy costs the economy millions of dollars a year! when in fact money people aren't spending on entertainment they could be spending on other stuff, like beer in this example (or diapers, medicine, food, clothes, whatever). You can bet your ass brewers would love if people spend less on crappy music and more on their beers.

Originally posted by Corporate_Goon:Vandigeth: If it's good enough to steal, it's good enough to pay for.

Are you suggesting that the price of a good never factors into the purchasing decisions of consumers? That if I am willing to buy a Blu-Ray movie for $15 then I am also willing to buy it for $30, $45, or even $1,000?

Obviously, the price of a good can determine whether or not a consumer buys that good. Piracy is just a special case where the price of the good is zero.

Apparently the "Piracy doesn't hurt and even helps" people forgot to talk with the "Robin Hood" people. So you want to "stick it to the man"? Which man would that be? Media conglomerate that has more money than any of you will see in a lifetime and continuing to make more? Or the man who's making pennies (if that) under their contract and your actions threatens to take even that away?

quote:

The only people who I pity for being pirated are software developers. Screw the musicians and the actors. Hollywood sux. The one and only good movie last year was the Dark Knight. And music?! Hah! I haven't bought an album since 1998 (which, conincidentally, was when I found Napster). Still! Music has really sucked a lot post 2000.

So they sux. Apparently the growth not only of the pirate bay but western culture in general shows just how much of a false notion that really is. What you "Mr broad strokes" really meant to say is that for you some things suck. The rest of us just don't agree with you.

If the media mafia would focus on profit made from distribution and not distribution without profit then I would agree that any site to make money off torrents and such are criminal. However because of the insipid nature of the media mafia I'll chose the lesser criminal every time.

You simply can not control every nuance of distribution in this day and age. So until the industry changes focus I'll side with the brimey blimey's...

Sorry if it hurts your bottom line but keeping parents from posting kid videos online with trademark or CP'd works in the picture is not a crime civil or otherwise and the good that comes from free non profit distribution of media far outweighs adding a few LB to the 800LB gorilla butt that's already on the necks of the consumer...

Honestly, I just don't know what the right thing to do is with respect to piracy. I still buy CD's, at least as many as I would otherwise (but of course I can't know if that's true) but by not pirating, I wouldn't be benefitting anybody and I would have less music, so what's the sense in that?

Say what you will about reflexively opposing all IP, it does at least obviate the need to worry about these thorny ethical issues.

Apparently the "Piracy doesn't hurt and even helps" people forgot to talk with the "Robin Hood" people. So you want to "stick it to the man"? Which man would that be? Media conglomerate that has more money than any of you will see in a lifetime and continuing to make more? Or the man who's making pennies (if that) under their contract and your actions threatens to take even that away?

Do your homework. It does does help artists and musicians who are good at what they do. In fact the profit they make without the labels and IFPI/RIAA/ETC Is pure profit and is (assuming they're good.) Much more then they would make otherwise. Hell, They make more off donations (Giving the album away and asking for donations.) then they would with a label stealing their money and using it for pointless lawsuits.

I'm not going to say that what they are doing is ethical, but neither is what the industry is doing. I'd say, in a perfect world, I could tell both of them to go to hell, but for now my alliance is with the scene and all its distributors.

I have spent thousands of dollars at amazon.com buying software, DVDs, movies, Christmas and Birthday gifts, even cloths and hardware over several years. But they refuse to make me their client when it comes to downloading MP3s and video because I have a Mexican IP address.

I could be using legit services like Huluu, but they also refuse to give me access to their content because of my Mexican IP address.

So in these cases I turn to The Pirate Bay to get my content fix, mainly when I miss the newest episodes of my favorite TV shows.

Content owners have to get it through their thick fucking head that putting up virtual borders over the Internet is not what the Internet is about.

If idiot Big Content execs don't want me as their customer then I will gladly turn to the jolly folks at the Pirate Bay.

Pirate Bay FTW! If the Big Content Assholes think that messing with TPB is going to even dent the torrenting scene they are sadly mistaken. Even if TPB should happen to go down it will never stay down. Ask Demonoid.com about that. So fuck em all. The culture has changed forever. Media is no longer what it used to be. Anyone who thinks it can go back to the days before torrenting is also sadly mistaken. It will not ever go back. So forget about it. In fifty years people won't even question it.

Bios ElementThe industry has to much power as a racket and creates many more troubles for artists...hell...look at ticket master either you pay them to stay in abusive power or you better manage your money and keep it out of the hands of the undeserving parts of the industry.

Piracy is one legitimate method,buying used is a better one, go to youer local resale, consignment,pawn shops and stay away from retail that not only price gouge you you abusive the power they have.

I'm worried they'll get jail. Not because I think they're in the wrong, mind you, but because the IFPI/RIAA/MPAA have WAY WAY too much money to not have already paid the whole way.

I don't have evidence. Sue me. Look at everything they do - even with them "getting away from" suing little girls and the elderly - and tell me you expect them to act with any semblance of class or respectability. Look at who Biden's throwing into the DoJ! They're all **AA toads! That's why I couldn't bring myself to vote for Obama - I know who owns his VP.

The **AA cartels never act with the customer's interest even in the back of their mind. You, me, and everyone don't matter in the slightest to them. The only thing that matters is where the next $ into their bonus check comes from.

Are the TPB crew guilty? Yes. Are they the worse of two evils? - Don't even answer that, because you either know already, or you're not worth oxygen.

Apparently the "Piracy doesn't hurt and even helps" people forgot to talk with the "Robin Hood" people. So you want to "stick it to the man"? Which man would that be? Media conglomerate that has more money than any of you will see in a lifetime and continuing to make more? Or the man who's making pennies (if that) under their contract and your actions threatens to take even that away?

Do your homework. It does does help artists and musicians who are good at what they do. In fact the profit they make without the labels and IFPI/RIAA/ETC Is pure profit and is (assuming they're good.) Much more then they would make otherwise. Hell, They make more off donations (Giving the album away and asking for donations.) then they would with a label stealing their money and using it for pointless lawsuits.

You're mixing up two different groups. Those who aren't part of the system aren't part of the discussion(1) When someone talks about "sticking it to the man", they're talking about "the system" and that includes artists under contract. So once again how is "sticking it to the man" actually effective? According to you it not only doesn't hurt but even helps. Are you all sure the media conglomerates really are your enemy?

(1) For those pursuing this branch. Why are you "sticking it to" them?

Originally posted by Corporate_Goon:These people are scum and I hope they throw the book at them.

Why? Because they index torrents? You do realize that even if they get the book thrown at them that it's not going to change anything. Those posting the stuff will just move on to the next big thing. There's a demand there that isn't going to go away just because they take down one site. It's stupid really, and a waste of tax dollars.

And before someone starts the tired argument that I'm just mad I'm not going to be able to get my fix anymore (as if), I haven't used P2P in years. There are better more reliable ways to get stuff.